Comments On: Newsflash: Murderers Are Assholes
by David Schmaderhttp://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/newsflash-murderers-are-assholes
Comments On: Newsflash: Murderers Are Assholes
by David Schmaderen-usCopyright 2018 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger.webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster)Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:01 -0800Sat, 17 Feb 2018 20:45:00 -0800Foundationhttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
and I think fallible humans have no place deciding who needs killing and carrying out that killing, especially when the people thought to need killing are under control and no longer a danger to society. Danger to fellow inmates? Solitary confinement. Nothing more irreversible than lost time.
I am unwilling to accept any broken eggs to make this omelette.
Posted by aureolaborealis]]>
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:33:37 -0700The Stranger
Posted by scary tyler moore]]>
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:45:32 -0700The Stranger
I wholeheartedly agree with you.

And I haven't been sheltered from the evils of humankind.
I would have liked my abuser to be judged and inprisonned for what he did, but although I will welcome his (natural) death, because of my conviction of humanity being better off with it, I would have had no joy in him being murdered by state.
Posted by sissoucat]]>
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 06:05:29 -0700The Stranger
Posted by venomlash]]>
Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:04:51 -0700The Stranger
Posted by Amanda]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:58:57 -0700The Stranger
You win.
Posted by six shooter]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:16:46 -0700The Stranger
Posted by six shooter]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:14:09 -0700The Stranger
Posted by beef rallard]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:52:45 -0700The Stranger
Posted by Theodore Gorath]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:39:56 -0700The Stranger
Simply put, I believe killing someone for the simple reason that you want to is immoral, and murder. Because that is what your argument is: I want certain people killed, and I want the state to do it for me. The death penalty deters no one, is extremely expensive (dedicated facilities, staff, years and years of appeals, special housing units holding inmates for 50+ years), and makes the eventual mistakes tragically permanent.

If the idea of many guilty people and a few innocent people being killed by the state gives you the warm fuzzies, so be it, but I do not think it is a very good reason to endorse state sanctioned murder of citizens.

A quick question: if you knew for a fact that a certain person committed heinous murders, and that person was chained to the ground in front of you, would you take it upon yourself to kill them? Would it bring you joy?
Posted by Theodore Gorath]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:34:06 -0700The Stranger
I am not sure what is so unreasonable about my opinion. I think people who are wrongly imprisoned should be let free. I think people who are on death row for crimes they aren't guilty of should be let free. I think people who commit heinous crimes but have significant mitigating circumstances which help explain their crimes should not be killed by the State.

But I also we should be allowed to execute people who commit heinous crimes, show no remorse, take pleasure in taunting the families of their victims and don't have significant mitigating circumstances explaining their lack of humanity.

should invalidate our ability to leaven the worst, and most permanent punishment possible.

ftfy.
Posted by six shooter]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:28:36 -0700The Stranger
The difference is I hate having to bear that responsibility and you seem to enjoy it.

The problem you are having is you think you have a right to decide who deserves to die and for what crime. You do not get to speak for everyone. You want your government to kill citizens you find offensive and problematic.

Also, the families of people wrongfully executed suffer as well, their pain intentionally caused or not. They may not find too much difference at the end of the day. People in prisons have lives, families, and loved ones, as much as you do not want this to be the case. Makes it easier to be ok with murdering them, I guess.

I never said the courts should be abolished because they are imperfect, but perhaps their imperfection should invalidate their ability to leaven the worst, and most permanent punishment possible. Espeically when even a cursory glance at the statistics prove that the poor and minorities are executed at much higher rates.

People who have been wrongfully imprisoned for years may think differently about your idea that there is little difference between imprisoning someone for years and murdering them.

Your bloodlust is not much different than the killer here. You just want the state to kill the people you want dead, so you can avoid the moral problem.
Posted by Theodore Gorath]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:57:32 -0700The Stranger
Wait... I didn't say everyone complicit in any murder or accidental death willy-nilly deserves to die. I suggested society maintains the right to execute horrible people who take pleasure in doing really nasty, sub-human things to other people.

Accidentally executing the wrong person on death row is WAY different that intentionally causing pain to the families of the people you've just been convicted of murdering in cold blood.

Our courts are imperfect. If you hold the rest of us to your "never make any mistakes" standard, then we're much much much more guilty of imprisoning (the wrong) people for years / decades / lifetimes than we are of accidentally executing someone.

Of course, you don't get out of responsibility for those accidental and tragic deaths by simply shrugging your shoulders and saying "I'm against the death penalty."

Society killed those people in your name, too.
Posted by six shooter]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:33:02 -0700The Stranger
This is the paradox of capital punishment.

Killing someone because it makes you feel good is wrong. State sanctioned murder of another human who is of no danger to society is barbaric, and has no place in a civilized society. Our courts are imperfect, and should not be in the business of killing people.

No one deserves execution no matter what their crimes. The desire to kill people on this thread is pretty shocking, especially when those same people are talking about how horrible this person is for killing people.

Take a look at yourselves. Your bloodlust is no difference than his.
Posted by Theodore Gorath]]>
Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:14:47 -0700The Stranger
Posted by beef rallard]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:16:04 -0700The Stranger
Posted by Urgutha Forka]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:29:48 -0700The Stranger
Look. Some people deserve to die. I'm sorry, but that's how I see the world.
Posted by six shooter]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:52:08 -0700The Stranger
And as for minors - only the Congo, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria continue to execute people under 18. I suggest you move to one of those countries if you are so keen to stone 15-year-olds to death.
Posted by zivilisierter Wurm]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:57:06 -0700The Stranger

In my experience, most people who oppose the death penalty have been generously sheltered from the true evil normal people bring to society.

Don't you think this is kind of a blanket statement?

This may be true of some of the people who make a *moral* case against the death penalty. Not that it's wrong because innocent people may be executed or because it's not a deterrent or because it's too expensive, because it's supposedly wrong to kill people full stop. Doesn't matter what the crime was or how vicious the killer continues to be even after capture.

Many of those people probably are overly sheltered.

But I, for one, am not one of those people. I don't have a problem in theory with execution as a form of punishment for murder. I do have many problems with it in practice. Not the least of which is the fact that it costs many times more imprisoning the scumbag for life. So why not just throw him in a hole and let him rot? Why do we have to spend millions of dollars just to make the victim's family feel better? (Supposedly.)
Posted by keshmeshi]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:19:04 -0700The Stranger
One never forgets those who die, especially when young and from foul play. (As I have mentioned before, I had a friend who was shot in the face while waiting tables when she was 21). I rather like the idea of sending a Christmas card to the killer and him knowing that while we are all out and about enjoying the season, there he is with another year of his life wasted, and that he will never know a Christmas where he is not behind bars.

It's better than those ghouls who make a party out of executions, you have to grant me that.
Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:04:30 -0700The Stranger
Our justice system rests itself firmly on a "jury of peers".

Peers implies we have equals and we have people who aren't equals. Lords are judged by lords, serfs by serfs and all that.

I suspect you're upset we're killing people and using your name to do it. You benefit and suffer unequally in every way in this society. The death penalty can't suddenly become fair in a vacuum.

Posted by six shooter]]>
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:46:59 -0700The Stranger
The death penalty has absolutely nothing to do with deterrence or punishment. The death penalty is how modern society imposes revenge on the people who violate its rules, laws, norms, mores, etc..What @40 wrote here is entirely correct.

It's too bad too. Revenge is primitive. It's an inability to advance. Being stuck in a certain place in time, being controlled by the very person who committed the evil act.